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The United States Declares War

Following Wilson's reelections, events quickly brought the country to the brink of war. In January 1917, a German official named Arthur Zimmermann sent a telegram to the German ambassador in Mexico asking him to make an off to the Mexican government: If Mexico agreed to become an ally of Germany in a war with the United States, Germany promised Mexico would regain its "lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona" after the war.
Zimmermann Telegram